Eight months ago, I posted a short item here predicting that within 5-10 years, the big three commonwealth governments would begin accepting at-home English tests for visa purposes.  It remains one of the most widely-read things I’ve written.

With the termination of the SDS in Canada, I suppose my prediction has arrived ahead of schedule.  As things stand, Canada-bound students can now get a study permit without visiting a test center.

Maybe that’s not a huge deal, but the termination of the SDS also means that all tests are now on a level playing field.  Students are now free to pick any test that is accepted by their target school, without consideration of how it will impact the issuance of their study permit.

Previously, students opting for entrance via the SDS program took an IELTS, TOEFL, CAEL, CELPIP or PTE test.  And now?  They have a buffet of options to choose from.  Take the University of Toronto, which is apparently a nice school.  Undergrad applicants can meet language fluency requirements by submitting scores from the following tests:  C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency, DET, COPE, IELTS, PTE and TOEFL.  They can also submit an IB literature result, or some qualifications from the UK that I’m not familiar with.  Whatever their choice, it won’t affect their study permit.

Yes, I know that technically this was always an option, as the SDS could be bypassed in favor of the slow stream, but few students in the key sending markets went that route.

Clearly, then, this change represents yet another challenge for the legacy testing firms.  But it also represents a challenge for Pearson and Prometric (developer of the CAEL and CELPIP tests). In my view it will be very difficult to convince a student in China to pay $300 to take the TOEFL or $310 to take the PTE when the DET costs $65 and will get them to Canada just as easily.  Likewise, it will be hard to convince a student in India to take a 165 minute IELTS when a 60 minute DET is just as good.

And decades of shabby customer service from legacy testing firms has left them without enough goodwill to convince test takers to stick with them during these trying times.

Some may wonder how legacy test makers will approach this challenge.  One strategy might be to pray daily that IRCC introduces a language test requirement into the study permit system, rendering moot all of the above.  That may happen.  Another strategy may be to focus mostly on testing students bound for graduate programs, where the DET doesn’t have widespread acceptance.  That could be a smart approach.

A more ambitious strategy would be to take this as an opportunity to innovate in terms of test content and item development.

Hear me out.

One reason why items on legacy tests seem to be set in stone is that the test makers are beholden to whatever research and validity studies they have submitted to gain acceptance by governments.  Any drastic changes to test design can result in that acceptance being revoked.  That’s why Australia’s Department of Home Affairs temporarily stopped accepting TOEFL scores starting in July of last year.

But with the shuttering of the SDS and the winding down of the SELT program in the UK, this isn’t as big a concern as it used to be.

The folks at ETS have little to lose and much to gain from reinventing the TOEFL as a cheaper, shorter and more consumer friendly test.  Doing so will no longer impact their relationship with IRCC.  And since the TOEFL isn’t accepted in the UK, they have nothing to worry about there.  Yeah, it would cost them Australia (again) but I don’t think the test is widely used by students heading to that country anyway.  And, heck, the aforementioned changes would likely increase use of the test among US-bound students.

The IELTS partnership is also looking at a brave new world right now, though changes to that test would be trickier to implement. Though they are in the same boat as ETS as far as Canada is concerned, they have much more to lose in Australia and (in the short term) in the UK.  But the HOELT is coming, and in a few years the IELTS partners will find themselves in a position where innovation is much easier to pull off.

With all that said, there is a fourth possible strategy.  That is, of course, to do nothing.

Canada has ended the Student Direct Stream (SDS).  This program was introduced by IRCC in 2018 to provide expedited study permit processing from select countries, including the key sending countries of India and China.  

Applicants opting for the SDS route were subject to requirements beyond those in the regular non-SDS study permit application.  These requirements included a language test result.

Moving forward, all students must apply through the regular study permit stream.

Notably, the regular study permit stream does not require a language test score.  It merely requires a letter of acceptance from an institution.  Institutions set their own language test requirements and issue the LOA once applicants have fulfilled them.

In terms of language testing, one imagines that this change will generate business for Duolingo’s DET, which is widely accepted by schools across the country but was not accepted for use in the SDS stream.  It may reduce volumes of more expensive tests like the TOEFL, PTE and IELTS, scores from which were accepted as part of the SDS stream.

I suppose, though, that one should keep an eye on the specific requirements of the student permit program.  Perhaps a language test requirement will be added in the future.

Note that the Nigeria Student Express program has also been eliminated.  It was similar to the SDS.